Life preservers are a necessary safety precaution for boats and aircraft flying over water. The buoyant material from which many life preservers are constructed is a polymer foam which is lightweight but bulky and consequently is difficult to store on boats or planes where there is a limited amount space for storage. The lack of storage space combined with the generally bulky nature of life preservers can result in operators not carrying life preservers, or not carrying a sufficient number of life preservers to accommodate each passenger.